South East Technological University (SETU) welcomed academic and industry partners from across Europe to Waterford on 10 and 11 September as part of the €1.4 million European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food-funded BECEE project.
BECEE – Balanced and Enhanced Collaboration for an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem – brings together four universities and four industry partners from Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Albania to strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystems and support entrepreneurs in turning ideas into impactful and sustainable ventures.
Led by Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS) in the Netherlands, the two-year project runs from April 2025 to April 2027.
SETU is playing a key role in the European consortium, leading the project’s work on start-up incubation and support. Drawing on the University’s established expertise in entrepreneurship and enterprise engagement, the SETU team is helping to develop approaches that can support entrepreneurs across the participating regions, while also mentoring partners within the consortium.
The BECEE partners are working together to capture lessons from their respective entrepreneurship ecosystems and use this shared knowledge to develop a practical BECEE framework to support entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey.
Connecting universities, enterprise and entrepreneurs
A particular strength of SETU’s contribution to BECEE is its close relationship with enterprise and the University’s experience of connecting entrepreneurs with academic expertise, incubation facilities and business supports.
SETU has previously shared its experience with consortium partners across its entrepreneurship ecosystem, including the supports available through ArcLabs, New Frontiers and its engagement with regional enterprise centres.
Dungarvan Enterprise Centre is the Irish industry partner in BECEE, providing a direct connection between the European project and the needs and experiences of entrepreneurs and businesses in the region.
Professor Helen Hughes, from SETU's BECEE team, said, "SETU is delighted to be part of the BECEE project allowing us to share our experience of developing an entrepreneurship mindset, supporting regional development and innovation. Building upon our own experiences and benefitting from different approaches in our partner organisations, SETU aims to become the foremost centre for entrepreneurship training, start-up support and development in the South-East region. We envisage that entrepreneurs who are starting or further developing their businesses, to have SETU foremost in their minds as partners who can support this journey and enable successful outcomes for all."
Building upon our own experiences and benefitting from different approaches in our partner organisations, SETU aims to become the foremost centre for entrepreneurship training, start-up support and development in the South-East region.
Professor Helen Hughes, SETU BECEE Project team member
The SETU team includes Dr Ultan McCarthy, Rachel O’Dowd and Professor Helen Hughes from the Department of Land Sciences, together with Dr James O’Sullivan, SETU Head of Innovation and Commercialisation, and Emeritus Professor William O’Gorman, who is also Chairperson of Dungarvan Enterprise Centre.
European partners gather at SETU
The two-day meeting at SETU brought together representatives of the project’s four academic partners: Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands; Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland; South East Technological University in Ireland; and Universiteti “Aleksandër Moisiu” Durrës in Albania.
Industry partners KPN in the Netherlands, Innofuse in Switzerland, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in Ireland and Linda Laboratory in Albania also participated.
The meeting also enabled partners to share progress and experience from their respective countries as they work towards a common framework that can be used to support entrepreneurs across different European contexts.
By bringing together partners from the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Albania, we have been able to learn from our different starting points, share what works and build something stronger together. Our visit to SETU demonstrated exactly that spirit: entrepreneurship becomes more powerful when knowledge, experience and opportunities are shared across institutional and national boundaries."
Jeroen Loef, BECEE Project Lead, Hanze University of Applied Sciences
Building stronger entrepreneurship ecosystems
BECEE’s wider vision is to harness the experience, knowledge and infrastructure available within each partner region to create more inclusive, innovative and resilient entrepreneurial ecosystems around European universities.
Central to this is strengthening the relationship between higher education and industry and empowering students, staff and researchers through entrepreneurial learning, collaboration and access to the supports needed to progress ideas towards real-world application.
Jeroen Loef, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and BECEE Project Lead explained:
“What BECEE has shown us is that strong entrepreneurial ecosystems are not built by universities working in isolation. They grow through meaningful connections between educators, students, researchers, industry and the wider community. By bringing together partners from the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Albania, we have been able to learn from our different starting points, share what works and build something stronger together. Our visit to SETU demonstrated exactly that spirit: entrepreneurship becomes more powerful when knowledge, experience and opportunities are shared across institutional and national boundaries.”
Through its leadership of start-up incubation and support within the project, SETU contributed its experience while also drawing on approaches and lessons from European partners, helping to strengthen entrepreneurship capacity both within the University, across the wider South East region and beyond.
The BECEE project is supported by EIT Food.
